Memphis City and the ACLU have, in the last week, released a huge trove of documents relating to the A-list lawsuit.
The UK-based The Guardian today covered the story, as has Esquire magazine and Citylab. Our local crowdsourcers have only begun to dig in the paperwork, and we are certain that the material will fuel our researches for years to come, but a few vital facts have emerged.
Geofeedia replacement social media “collator” NC4.
Probably one of the most significant finding to date is the identification of the Geofeedia replacement. The ACLU had been after this product as the social media spy tool of choice until the social media powerhouses cut off its data feed in October 2016. The new replacement is NC4, which was revealed in the new a-list documents, we think for the first time. All we can find is this PRnewswire piece which was probably paid for by NC4.com as part of its PR aimed at local LE departments.
This alone means that we are already seeing dividends from the ACLU case, before it is even heard.
Activist counter-intel successes.
Rolling Block Party at Fedex: 4/23/2018 Keedran on the car.
Almost as interesting, which squares with what we already knew from our previous blog about CCC’s counter-intel operations, is the fact that LE responses have been repeatedly been triggered by fake news planted by people close to CCC. Our blog uses Open Record information to document how fake news about an attempt on the Bridge escalated all the way to the top of State LE and to FBI. That incident appears to have escalated police response to protests, including the arrest of protesters on April 3rd by a snatch squad from the MPD Multi-Agency Gang Unit’s OCU (Organized Crime Unit). It was a pre-emption intended to abort a 6:30 bogus Bridge occupation. The OCU is all over the ACLU documents. The take-away from this is that information gleaned by MPD and TBI’s CIU from social media is even less reliable than the average social media fake news.
LE bites on fake intel, misses the real information.
Bruce Kramer, longtime ACLU attorney
Also revealed, something we also suspected from our blog: Not only is State LE liable to fly off the handle and escalate fake news to the top levels of local, State and Federal LE, but they have been doing a very poor job of eliciting the real intel they seek.
Our CCC story reveals that the unknown operational security measures CCC used to safely transmit the real April 3rd itinerary are working. The unadvertised first stop of the Rolling Block Party arrived at FedEx to find no police presence, and the police made the scene in a time span appropriate to a 911 dispatch. So, not only is the police intel gathering catching all the fake news, it is missing the real intel they are after.
Here’s the Daily Kos‘ Gary Moore on the April 3 arrests.
MPD gets vindictive from intel defeat.
Frustration at being totally confounded by this poorly financed, rag-tag group of activists may have led to Keedran Frankin‘s July 6th arrest, and the planting of evidence in his car. This arrest was allegedly in a traffic stop done by OCU, which is not exactly their beat.
Limitations of MPD’s social media spying.
The strange story of “Bob Smith’s” bogus social media account is also revealed. We had feared that MPD’s Real Time Crime Center had the ability to penetrate the end-to-end encryption used by Facebook. However, it appears that MPD was only able to view private data on Facebook to which their fake account, Bob Smith, had ‘friended’ itself. All the information in the earliest document released by the city suggests that only activists friended by Bob Smith could be accessed by MPD. In particular, Facebook Private Messages and secret groups which did not include Bob Smith were safe from spying.
We say this with a caveat: private Facebook stuff could be revealed via NSA decryption or by the issuance of a FICA court order, which does not require much in the way of probable cause. As far as I know, CCC used different means to organize the Rolling Block Party, and I don’t want to know what it was. CCC keeps ahead of LE spying by eternal vigilance and strict operational security.
Photo: Facebook
I was personally targeted by Bob Smith and the information used to smear me, as searches for “Fergus” and “Nolan” separately will reveal. In particular, my arrest on Memorial Day 2016 was presented to be because I advocated lawbreaking due to entrapment by Bob Smith as a deliberate act by MPD, which I know to be untrue. In addition, the story of my uncovering the A-list which I documented in this first party eye witness account is smeared by a bogus allegation of a fanciful meeting I was supposed to have with a County employee, who is standing for election this week. I promised I would not out this person until after the election, but this MPD cover story did not surface until after my A-list story needed to be discredited, and is at variance with my contemporary eye witness account. My story did not change. Theirs did.
In other news: Office of Homeland Security identified.
At MemphisTruth.org, we have been looking for the MPD’s Office of Homeland Security. It turns out to be two officers, Sergeant Tim Reynolds, promoted this April but identified in the documents as Detective, Sergeant and Lieutenant, and as Police Officer II in the current City salaries list. Also Sgt. Edwin Cornwell.
The Office of Homeland Security is part of MPD Special Operations, housed in the Special Operations division, which also houses the Real Time Crime Center which does most of MPD’s electronic spookery.
This is a witness account, so I am putting it in the first person. At the City Council meeting on July 24th 2018, I made a 2-minute speech at City Council, in which I referred to a vote in September 2017 in which Boyd did not recuse himself. Berlin Boyd responded with a remarkable diatribe, in which he said “…someone’s going to get hurt and it won’t be me.”
Background
I wrote a blog in July, 1544 Madison: An Open Letter to Berlin Boyd, which was part of a series of blogs on Boyd. The blog followed Boyd’s interactions with enterprises owned by Bill Orgel, including almost $40K in political contributions, a series of votes on the Land Use Control Board in which Boyd voted for permits for Orgel cell towers and a number of grants to Orgel developments, on which Boyd voted on City Council. I provided some open record requests at the EDGE board and DMC proving eleven meetings between Boyd and EDGE officials, Boyd’s partnership with Bill Orgel’s family firm and other Orgel lieutenants, and the issuance of a $6.2M PILOT to the partnership.
Berlin Boyd called me out.
At the previous Council meeting on July 10th, Boyd had an interaction with a speaker from the public, Aaron Fowles. In this extract from the official video, at minute 9:56, Boyd talks about Theryn Bond’s ejection from the chamber at the previous meeting and continues “… People who put lies out and people get contracts and go to Nashville and set up TDZ’s. Are you serious. And you sit there and lie and hold your camera…”. I was holding a camera at the time.
I had written “Berlin Boyd applied to the State of Tennessee to expand the Tourism Development Zone northwards.”, in relation to the Mud Island TDZ. In the linked article in the Memphis Daily News: “Memphis City Councilman Berlin Boyd said that he’s waiting to hear back from the state of Tennessee about an expansion of Mud Island’s tourism development zone to encompass the Pinch District.
Mystery car noted on Facebook.
On July 10th, someone posted about seeing a vehicle with Mississippi plates and a “B BOYD” vanity tag parked in front of City Hall. A comment was made that it might be Berlin Boyd’s car and I said it might have been former council member Bill Boyd.
On the 24th, I posted on MRYE for people to keep an eye out for this car and get a photo. I did not mention Berlin Boyd, just quoted the vanity plate.
Comment on Facebook 7/24/2018
What Happened at City Hall
Here’s an excerpt from the 2-minute speeches on 7/24/2018, taken from the official video. As I felt that Boyd had directly addressed me on the 10th, I came to Council and spoke.
Thanks to Councilwoman Janis Fullilove
I started out by thanking Councilwoman Fullilove, who had said, “Last fall, I deferred to some of my colleagues on the City Council who expressed concern about IRV. I have rethought my position. The people have already voted for this. We ought to give it a try”. I added: thank you Councilwoman Fullilove, one honest council member”.
Correcting the Nashville misquote
Then I referred to Boyd’s statement from the previous meeting. Boyd said that I had said he went to Nashville, then gave the quote above from my blog: “Berlin Boyd applied to the State of Tennessee to expand the Tourism Development Zone northwards.” And then I quoted the original Daily News article which I had linked. I pointed out the misquote.
Conflict of Interest in September vote
Then I went on to my final point of the evening. 2/28/2017 1544 Madison Partners buys the Madison Avenue property. 9/5/2017: Berlin Boyd votes on City Council for a cell tower special use permit for Tower Assets Newco IX LLC, one of Bill Orgel’s cell tower ventures. This vote happened after the 1544 Madison property deal, so Orgel was a partner of Boyd at the time of this vote.
I was about to go on and ask why Boyd had not recused himself, when I got cut off.
Berlin Boyd lashes out
Berlin Boyd: What does this have to do with… Let me just say this. I am about to go on record to file a restraining order against you, because you are becoming excessive and stalkerish. You just lied two seconds ago when you said that I was driving a vehicle with Mississippi tags on it. I do not own a vehicle with Mississippi tags on it. **
Berlin Boyd: But I will go on record to put a restraining order against you, because someone’s going to get hurt and it won’t be me. I guarantee that. Have a nice day.
Me: So I’m going to get hurt, am I?
BB: Sir, you drive by my house and that’s inappropriate.
Me: I’ve never driven by your house.
BB: I’m not debating you sir.
Me: I’ve never been on your street.
BB: I have cameras at my house, sir, and your behavior is excessive. You’re stalking me and lying on me every chance you get. Sir, please have a seat.
Me: I’ve never lied about you.
BB: Set him out, get your facts straight, kick him out
** This is a reference to my request for people to photograph the “B BOYD” vanity tag. I never said he was driving the car.
Boyd Highlights
I have never stalked Boyd, never been on his street, and I am not on Boyd’s security camera footage. He is a corrupt public figure and I have blogged about him. I have not lied about Berlin Boyd.
Boyd issued a physical threat in response to my fair comment.
Berlin Boyd lies a lot. He should release his security footage. I predict he won’t.
Conclusion
Berlin Boyd is rattled about my blog. There’s a smoking gun there.
Legal Fees Fundraiser.
Please donate to my fundraiser at fundly.com. I’m raising money to pay an attorney to get an order of protection against Berlin Boyd. (Updated 7/26/2018).
UPDATED: see last section for updates from 7/9 and 7/11/2018.
On the evening of Friday 6th July, 2018, Keedran Franklin was arrested by Organized Crime Unit detectives. OCU is part of the Multi-agency Gang Unit (MGU) which is a joint operation of MPD and the Sheriff’s Dept.
En route from Midtown to his south-east Memphis home, Keedran stopped at a friend’s house near Sharpe Ave. and Robin Hood Lane, and pulled in to a nearby driveway to turn around. Two police vehicles blocked him in the driveway with their dome-lights on, and two detectives, probably OCU (Organized Crime Unit) emerged.
Keedran Franklin displays lacerations after his 7/7/2018 release from 201 Poplar.
Franklin got out of his car and one of the police who had blocked the driveway lunged at him with handcuffs, injuring his left elbow and right wrist and arm.
One of the OCU police told him “You’re lucky, bitch, we was going to do you.”
Franklin was afterwards taken to the ER, where a dressing was applied to his left elbow and he was treated for cuts and bruising on his right wrist and arm.
While Franklin was being taken down, up to 20 additional OCU police arrived on the scene.
The Bust
The police claimed they smelled marijuana and used this as a probable-cause excuse to search his vehicle. This is a classic MPD move for turning a profiled traffic stop into a 4th amendment evasion and an arrest. It’s a large part of the reason why black men are arrested at three and a half times the rate of white men.
Franklin was cuffed and detained at the scene while officers searched his car. They found nothing. Later a canine unit arrived on the scene and a dog sniffed the car. At that point, 114.7 grams of marijuana and 19 grams of psilocybin mushrooms were found “somewhere around the back seat”.
The substances were planted in his vehicle by MPD.
Franklin was transported to 201 Poplar, with a detour to the ER for treatment of his injuries.
Incidentally, MGU and OGU officers don’t wear body cams and TNT did not get his phone out before being cuffed, so we don’t expect video of the arrest.
The Charges
Screen shot from Shelby County Criminal Court records
In the System
Keedran Franklin is greeted by adoring crowds at 201 Poplar after his midnight Saturday release.
The case number is 18016596. Keedran was booked on Friday and an arrest affidavit sworn, although it is not yet on file in the County system. Bail was set at $3000 via a video arraignment Saturday morning, and Franklin was released a few minutes before midnight on Saturday. His arraignment happened at 08:30 Monday morning in front of Judge Tim Dwyer.
CCC
Franklin is a founder member of Memphis Coalition of Concerned Citizens, an activist group which arise after the 2016 Bridge protest. CCC has at least thirty affiliated groups and has created C3 Community Cooperative, an urban gardening project. CCC runs regular Books and Breakfast events and has done things like distribute food and free movie tickets among the poor.
OCU officers at Franklin’s previous arrest on April 3rd.
Our April blog, about C3’s hoaxes played on Law Enforcement, details the events that led up to Franklin’s previous misdemeanor arrest, also at the hands of OCU. Franklin’s 4/3/2018 arrest is thought to be a snatch squad action designed to remove Franklin and other CCC leaders and prevent a faux-scheduled occupation of the bridge at 6:30 that evening.
Fake information had been released about the Bridge occupation which we tracked all the way up to the Tennessee Homeland Security commissioner. This was the most recent of a long list of CCC feints and surprises for law enforcement. Tenn. Highway Patrol had stationed 50 troopers at the Memphis Welcome Center on 7/9/2017 while CCC was holding a one year anniversary of the 2016 Bridge occupation. The Hernando de Soto bridge is the achilles heel of Tennessee law enforcement.
The Bridge, once more.
Keedran Franklin, at Health Sciences Park, August 12th 2017
This weekend, word had again gotten out that CCC was planning another Bridge occupation on Saturday July 8th at noon. We’ll put in new ORRs on Monday to see what MPD and the Fusion Centers have been saying. The rising frustration among LE at CCC’s ability to ring the changes on protest locations has become very apparent.
The real event planned for Saturday was a potluck at First Congregational Church on Cooper.
Was the OCU action in arresting Franklin another pre-emptive strike designed to remove the leadership and “prevent” another Bridge occupation? Did the call to “rid me of this turbulent priest” come from the highest levels of MPD and the State?
Cover-up at the CA?
CA front page, 7/8/2018
This is perhaps the strangest event of the weekend. The CA had published Franklin’s arrest story on-line at about 2 PM Saturday, and this headline appeared on the front page in Sunday’s edition. But the print edition’s page 4 did not carry the story, no anywhere else in the paper.
Is the fix in. Did the CA pull the print version of the story as a favor for someone in the City or MPD. The story was finally published on Monday 9th.
UPDATE 7/9/2018: Mark Russell, Executive Editor of the CA, emailed me to day that the Sunday omission was inadvertent “It appears that the wrong page A-4 was picked up the press room and that story did not run as planned.” Human error.
We plan to update this story as the facts come in.
Update 7/11/2018: TNT’s case is scheduled for preliminary hearing on 7/23/2018. Veteran duo of civil rights attorneys Scott and Bruce Kramer are working on his case.
1544 Madison Partners (pdf) is a general partnership with Berlin Boyd, Adam Slovis, Benjamin Orgel, Jay Lindy, Michael McLaughlin, Orgel Family LP and Three Madison Partners.
Berlin Boyd is the City Councilor for District Seven.
Adam Slovis is a realtor and was Berlin Boyd’s employer from 2008 until Boyd’s realtor’s license expired in July 2014. Slovis and Associates acquires cell tower sites for Tower Ventures.
Benjamin Orgel is William Orgel’s son. Orgel senior is principal of Tower Ventures, which owns cell towers. He is on the SCS board and is one of the biggest political donors in Shelby County.
William Orgel (Photo: Tower Ventures)
Benjamin Orgel (Photo: Choose901)
Jay Lindy (Photo: Tower Venures)
Adam Slovis (Photo: Slovis Commercial)
Jay Lindy is an attorney, and COO and general counsel for Tower Ventures.
Orgel Family LP is William and Benjamin Orgel’s investment company.
Three Madison Partners is the previous owner of the site at 1544 Madison. It is thought to be connected to Boyle Investments, who are mentioned in the 1544 Madison deeds.
Berlin Boyd’s Tower Contributions
Berlin Boyd received the following contributions from the above investors between 2014 and 2017: 2/20/2014: Steven (Exec VP for Asset Development at Tower) and Sharon Chandler; Craig (Exec VP for Carrier Leasing at Tower) and Cathy Weiss; Bill and Robin Orgel; Jay Lindy; Craig Royal (VP for Construction and Operations at Tower); and Adam Slovis donate a total of $11,950 to Boyd’s County campaign. All contributions from this section are from the Shelby County Election Commission.
April 2014: Jay Lindy donates $500 to Boyd
March-April 2015: six Tower executives / spouses donate $8,500 to Boyd 2015 District 7 campaign
October 2015: six Tower executives / spouses donate $9,000 to Boyd District 7 campaign for the runoff
6/1/2017: Benjamin, William and Robin Orgel, Susan Lindy, Adam Slovis and Sharon Chandler donate $6500 to Boyd.
7/13/2017: Cathy Weiss and Craig Royal donate $2000 to Boyd.
Total donations in this period from Tower associates: $39,450.
There were additional donations in kind for the 6/1/2017 fundraiser at Bill and Robin Orgel’s house.
Tennessee Brewery
Tennessee Brewery. Photo: Fergus Nolan
The Tennessee Brewery is an Orgel development. The site, at 495 Tennessee St, was bought by 495 Tennessee LLC which was owned by William Orgel on November 5th 2014. The Commercial Appeal also named Jay Lindy and Adam Slovis as partners. The Commercial Appeal tells the story of the development. The former Goldcrest 51 brewery, built in the 1870s, closed in 1954 and has been vacant since the 1980s. A succession of previous owners ending with The Tennessee Brewery LLC, had spent millions stabilizing the structure but on 11/5/2014 495 Tennessee Partners bought the property for $850K, in a predatory purchase. On 2/10/2015 495 Tennessee Partners bought a parking garage site across Tennessee St. and assembled incentives: parking garage funding, PILOT tax abatement, federal historic preservation tax credits and a city grant to replacing century-old utility infrastructure. Berlin Boyd was helpful with these City boons. Another site north of the Brewery was also acquired for additional apartments.
On 5/26/2015, Boyd seconds and votes for a $2.5M capital grant to MLGW after Orgel makes a presentation to the Budget Committee. The grant was for improving utility infrastructure at Tennessee Brewery. Boyd did not recuse himself from this vote.
6/23/2015 Boyd votes at City Council for the budget containing the $2.5M MLGW line item, for Tennessee Brewery. Boyd did not recuse himself from this vote.
12/15/2015: Boyd votes for a $2,250,000 contract at City Council (item 51) for project PW01270, for public infrastructure around the Tennessee Brewery. Boyd did not recuse himself from this vote.
5/12/2016: Downtown Memphis Commission (DMC) approves $28.1M PILOT for Tennessee Brewery.
3/8/2018 LUCB approves street closures for 1544 Madison, minutes (pdf). Boyd was present during that meeting, although not a current member of LUCB.
Berlin Boyd’s access at DMC
We obtained Open Records DMC emails from Boyd and from DMC to Boyd showing that Boyd and DMC executives were in constant communication, attended meetings together and had casual coffee dates. It is clear that Boyd’s Council status provided him immediate top-level access at DMC.
11/18/2013: LUCB: (Land Use Control Board). Boyd votes for 3 Tower-affiliated cell towers. (pdf) Boyd voted for many more of these cell towers without recusing himself, literally too many to count.
9/5/2017: Berlin Boyd votes on City Council for a cell tower special use permit for Tower Assets Newco IX LLC, one of Bill Orgel’s cell tower ventures. This vote happened after the 1544 Madison property deal, so Orgel was a partner of Boyd at the time of this vote. Boyd also voted for an Orgel cell tower on 4/1/2015.
The Snuff Factory
Former Snuff Factory site
On 17/1/2016 Bill Orgel bought a vacant property at the northeast corner of Keel and N. Main for $250,000. Deed 1Deed 2 (pdf), trading as Keel Steet LLC, with the same Viscount Ave corporate address as the other Orgel businesses.
This site is a couple of blocks north of the Pinch District, which is undergoing major redevelopment, with Bass Pro and the $9 Billion St Jude expansion. Berlin Boyd applied to the State of Tennessee to expand the Tourism Development Zone northwards. He has been promoting the Pinch redevelopment plan since late 2015. It is still to be seen what will happen at The Snuff Factory, but Boyd and Orgel are on the job.
EDGE and the 1544 Madison Development
1/1/2016 Berlin Boyd became the City Council representative on the EDGE board for calendar 2016. EDGE minutes.
2/2/2016 Boyd has a dispute with EDGE board chairman Reid Dulberger over minority contracts by PILOT recipients. Dulberger responded with a report at the February 17th Edge meeting with some numbers on minority and women contracts by PILOT recipients. The Boyd / Dulburger dispute seemed to recede after this, although some commentators say that the dispute provided Boyd with some leverage over Dulberger and the EDGE board. During Boyd’s year as City Council rep on EDGE, he was not marked present at a single EDGE board meeting, although the access that was granted him as a board member placed him in an excellent position to lobby the EDGE Board and employees.
10/19/2017 $6,177,765 PILOT granted for 1544 Madison, showing $24,775,069 in capital investment
2/12/2018: Smart City writes on EDGE’s “loosest slots in town”, questioning the need for more residential PILOTs. Downtown and Midtown are in the midst of a residential property boom, occasioned by the City’s decision to discontinue new sewer connections in the County. Residential PILOTs are far outside the norm for local government, and, as the announcement of the cessation of new sewer hookups dates only from August 2017, adding a redundant stimulus without first assessing the effect of the sewer impetus is irresponsible. The only proven benefit of residential PILOTs are a tax handout to the property owners.
3/8/2018 LUCB approves street closures for 1544 Madison, minutes (pdf). Boyd was present during that meeting, although not a current member of LUCB.
Berlin Boyd’s access at EDGE.
Boyd’s dealings at EDGE has given him a lot of access to their highest policy-making levels. We received Berlin Boyd’s email log (pdf) from EDGE via Open Records Request. He received 76 emails between September 2016 and March 2018, mostly invitations to Board meetings, EDGE Performance Review meetings and ED Finance Committee meetings. While Boyd was not marked present at any EDGE meetings we can find, a second Open Records request produced these eleven emails between 2015 and 2017 with additional meeting appointments. Boyd met, at City Hall, First Tennessee Bank, University of Memphis and EDGE, with EDGE management, including Reid Dulberger and Carmen Franklin. It is clear that Berlin Boyd had almost unrestricted access to EDGE board members from January 2106 to present, during the critical time when EDGE was considering residential PILOTs and specifically the pilot granted for 1544 Madison Partners in October 2017. Boyd was a super-lobbyist for 1544 Madison Partners.
Summary
Berlin Boyd’s relationship with Slovis, Orgel and their associates and ventures dates from at least 2008. Boyd received over $39K and other political donations from them. He voted on Council four times for over $10M of benefits to Tennessee brewery, and at LUCB and Council for at least eight Orgel cell tower permits. He has met with DMC executives many times in the course of his official business.
He was an EDGE board member and met numerous times with EDGE executives during a time when EDGE changed policy to allow residential PILOTs and when EDGE granted a $6.1M PILOT to a venture of which he is a partner.
He voted for an Orgel cell tower in September 2017 when Boyd and Orgel were partners, without recusing himself.
A question for Berlin Boyd.
Berlin Boyd. You have been in a position to influence the granting of valuable benefits to your partners in 1544 Madison. Can you show us a cashed check for the amount of your investment in 1544 Madison? Edge valued the investment at $24,775,069. Did you pay the $4.12M that your one sixth share is worth?
If that was a freebie, please explain exactly what you did for 1544 Madison Partners and its individual partners to deserve such a valuable boon?
CORRECTION: 7/5/2018. We removed a photo of Reid Hedgepeth and an incorrect reference to his company. We inserted an additional item related to a $2,250,000 contract for infrastructure work at Tennessee brewery for which Boyd voted on 12/15/2015. Apologies to all concerned.
This Slate article about Dylann Roof, where he was quoted saying “You rape our women, and you’re taking over our country, and you have to go.” debunks the myth of Black on white violence.
MPD Director Michael Rallings, with Mayor Jim Strickland. Rallings has stonewalled all CLERB recommendations. Photo: Memphis Daily News.
Behind the myth of black rapists was an elemental fear of black autonomy, often expressed by white Southern leaders who unhesitatingly connected black political and economic power to sexual liaison with whites. “We of the South have never recognized the right of the Negro to govern white men, and we never will,” said Sen. Benjamin Tillman on the Senate floor in 1900. “We have never believed him to be equal to the white man, and we will not submit to his gratifying his lust on our wives and daughters without lynching him.”
Ida B. Wells
We all know that during times of enslavement, the raping was being done by the slave owners. Ida B Wells and others debunked Jim Crow era allegations of Black rape against lynching victims. Genuine rapes of white women by Black men seem always to have been exceedingly rare or non-existent.
Nonetheless, this specter of Black violence against white people is still very much in existence. We see white politicians, like Jim Strickland, Kemp Conrad, Reid Hedgepeth, Bill Morrison and Worth Morgan harping on public safety, with coded references to the mythical danger posed to white voters by unrestrained and savage Black people.
Jim Strickland’s 2015 campaign.
Jim Strickland and Steven Reid, 2015. Photo: Memphis Flyer
Steven Reid, Jim Strickland’s 2015 campaign manager, wrote “How A Throwback Campaign Made History In Memphis”. The campaign did extensive polling and decided that Strickland’s Council public safety emphasis was the right strategy for the Mayoral campaign. They focused on the 70% of voters who were over 55 and used traditional media instead of electronic as that age group don’t use social media much. The article does not mention anything about encouraging racial vote splitting, which also helped Strickland greatly.
The article mentions some of the dog whistles in Strickland’s campaign, borrowed from his Council positions. “Strickland had long advocated for zero tolerance with violent criminals. And in the wake of a rash of juvenile crime in the city, including a high-profile attack on citizens at a Kroger store, Strickland had become critical of the mayor for failing to enforce curfew laws”. The linked article in Reid piece is a dead link. We substituted another similar media link. The campaign made a special effort to shore up white voters in the couple of weeks before the election.
The articles treat the public safety issue as a found phenomenon, failing to mention Strickland and his allies roles in stoking this fire, with help from the media.
Media Dog Whistle
The media, especially TV, have often been accused of dog whistling. This Commercial Appeal article which featured the third photo of the workers taking a break in the print version, was widely criticized for portraying negative racial stereotypes, by showing the Black youths taking a much needed hydration break, and by the selection of a quote from Mark Luttrell, one of the few white people in the article, using the loaded word “idleness” in the headline. CA Editor Mark Russell agreed that CA editorial policy was at fault in this instance, and the CA has since done a better job at avoiding racial coding.
This Channel 5 piece is typically coded, as was the Plaza Kroger piece we quoted in the Reid article.
The White Alliance on City Council.
Kemp Conrat berated Paul Garner from the Council dais. Photo: Gary Moore
Strickland had worked with members of the Caissa Seven in the 2015 council. The 2016 council is controlled by the Caissa Seven. Strickland is associated with Brian Stephens of Caissa Public Strategy, who had a prominent management role in Strickland’s Mayoral transition team. Philip Spinosa’s replacement, J Ford Canale, is expected to vote the Caissa Seven whip. He is closely associated with Strickland, Spinosa and Hedgepeth via the CBHS old boys network.
It is easy to see the Caissa Seven agreeing with “We of the South have never recognized the right of the Negro to govern white men, and we never will,” as per Sen. Benjamin Tillman. The Caissa Seven persuaded themselves that they are protecting Memphis from itself.
Council is gerrymandered to produce six white and seven Black councilors. This already under-represents Black voters by about 10%, and keeps the white delegation within one vote of control. By recruiting Berlin Boyd, they maintain a 7-6 vote lock. In addition, Joe Brown has always voted “law and order” with the white minority. Brown received a $5,000 donation from Memphis Police Association in 2015, and donated $500 in turn to Mike William’s (MPA President) mayoral campaign.
The Dog Whistles
Zero tolerance, both for violent crimes and in-school infractions. This falls heaviest on Black people. School disciplinary problems are escalated to the juvenile justice system.
juvenile crime is often a coded reference to crime by Black youths, including the example of the Kroger disturbance given by Stephen Reid above
curfew is disproportionally used on young Black people.
Memphis Shelby Crime Commission Youth Violence Plan (PDF). They are talking about Black youth violence and increased prison time.
The Case of CLERB
CLERB rally in 2015. Photo: Gary Moore
The current situation of CLERB is a well-documented history of how far Council members will go to protect the police force against transparency. In 2015, after a far-reaching campaign, Memphis United forced an ordinance on City Council to revitalize the long-moribund CLERB. The matter was eventually delayed until November 2015, when it was passed. Worth Morgan then introduced a new measure in 2016 to curtail CLERB’s subpoena powers.
Bill Boyd, proposed an amendment to reduce the CLERB budget on 6/16/2015
Kemp Conrad voted against the CLERB budget on 6/16/2015. He egged Berlin Boyd to ask for a November vote rather than an early approval of the CLERB ordinance on 8/4/2015. He also made vicious personal attacks on Memphis United’s Paul Garner and the pro-CLERB lobby from the council dais that day. He tried fear mongering, quoting an email from MPD Director Toney Armstrong saying that homicides would increase 20% if the ordinance is passed. (8/4/2015). Conrad also voted against the final CLERB ordinance on 11/3/2015.
Jim Strickland, on the basis of an Allan Wade opinion, produced a last minute amendment on the third reading of the CLERB ordinance, removing CLERB’s subpoena powers, 7/7/2015.
Berlin Boyd on 8/4/2015 asked for a four month delay in voting for the CLERB ordinance, after a phone call on the dais and calling MPD Director Toney Armstrong to the mic.
Reid Hedgepeth also voted both to delay CLERB on 8/4/2015 and against CLERB reactivation on 11/3/2015.
Also voting to delay CLERB on 8/4/2015 : Bill Morrison and Joe Brown.
Worth Morgan was the official Council liaison with CLERB but he failed to attend all but two of 20 CLERB meetings.
In 2016, Worth Morgan introduced a measure to curtail CLERB’s limited subpoena powers, which passed on 8/9/2016. Voting for clipping CLERB’s wings: the Caissa Seven: Kemp Conrad, Reid Hedgepeth, Berlin Boyd, Bill Morrison, Worth Morgan, Philip Spinosa and Frank Colvett. Joe Brown also voted for.
Police directors Armstrong and Rallings and MPA president Williams also intervened in the CLERB dispute. After the August 2016 vote, Worth Morgan failed to attend every CLERB meeting. As he was the Council liaison on CLERB, this severed the direct connection between CLERB and the city, and introduced an additional obstacle for CLERB using its cumbersome subpoena process via Council.
The example of CLERB shows how the law and order faction on Council works closely with MPD to protect it from even the mild transparency that CLERB offered.
The voting patterns around the CLERB votes are typical of the other votes on Council involving police. The main exceptions were Berlin Boyd’s marijuana ordinance in August 2016 where Kemp Conrad was the lone nay vote in a generally popular measure, and in the negotiations around the 2017 budget when the police budget was marginally cut in sub-committee. The Caissa Seven seems to recognize that Berlin Boyd needs to play to his district and relaxes the whip on him occasionally.
MPD’s Institutional Interest
MPD 1968
We have seen MPD steadfastly victimizing the Black population, from the early slave patrol days, through the 1866 Memphis Massacre, Reconstruction, the Jim Crow era, the Crump regime and the extraordinary measures taken to suppress the Civil Rights movement under Chandler. Even now, MPD is actively pursuing activists, many of whom are Black.
I have always assumed that current MPD racial profiling is part of their institutional DNA, and they are being racist because they have always been that way. There’s plenty of evidence for that.
But the dog whistle politics of the Caissa Seven and their predecessors coupled with the way the Caissa Seven protect and enrich the police adds another motive for police behavior. They are operating in their institutional self interest by enforcing the Caissa agenda. They are rewarded for enforcing racist policies.
The Wharton era pension debacle created a large pro-police movement, with Mike Williams as their leader. Facebook groups like “Just the Facts” are an example. The Caissa Seven and Strickland tapped into this movement.
Between 2008 and 2017, the MPD budget has grown by about a third ($60M), at a time when other City budgets were being cut to the bone. It is the biggest share of the City budget.
Bill Gibbons of Memphis Shelby Crime Commission. Photo: Memphis Flyer
Mayor Strickland, with the Memphis Shelby Crime Commission, attracted private funding for police retention, and the administration has been emphasizing police training classes and police recruitment. Public safety employees were given additional wage increases in the 2017 budget.
The CLERB episodes gave the Caissa Seven another opportunity to show MPD that their interests are being looked after.
All this is not surprising. Machiavelli wrote in “The Prince” that rulers have to protect their security force, even when they do wrong. The Caissa Seven and Strickland need the police to protect their positions and the economic interests of their financial backers.
MPD has every reason to play along with the dog whistle politics. It enriches and protects them. They are actually being encouraged to double down on their repressive, racist history. It’s not a few bad apples. It’s the institution.
In Conclusion
Dog whistle politics is a real thing. Its main function is to use traditional racist memes to make white voters afraid. The practitioners have also perverted community policing by using programs such as COP and neighborhood watches to recruit Black pastors and community activists to also gain police support in the Black community. Our recent post on the CCC’s misinformation campaign shows how MPD used a mailing list of supporters to get the word out.
It has been a successful strategy in preventing the 64% Black majority from controlling the levers of power. Or, if you like, keeping white minority control of the city.
Its consequence has been a protected, out of control police force which is motivated to profile the Black community, and the activist groups who are #woke to these issues.
Our CLERB archive addresses the problem that CLERB has not been posting their minutes and documents on-line. We created this partial archive to redress this problem. The lack of an archive makes CLERB’s transparency objective hard to achieve. Not being able to administer this essential function is also part of CLERB’s issues. In the two days since we published this piece, CLERB has published some letters and also corrected an indexing problem on the City site.
Paul Garner speaks at City Hall. Photo: Gary Moore
Our CLERB Prequel is a narrative of how CLERB got to be the way it is. It takes the story from Paul Garner’s arrest in 2013 through the most recent political change in summer of 2016.
This piece will refer to these sources as ARCHIVE with date or PREQUEL with date. Both are in date order.
In this post, the intention is to show that CLERB was deliberately engineered to be toothless, and how it was done. Identification of the faulty engineering suggests ways to fix CLERB. We create a list of the changes that CLERB members have asked for and show why these changes are necessary.
The Groups in Play
The police department actors were
Forner MPD Director Toney Armstrng. Photo: Bizjournals.
Toney Armstrong, MPD Director in 2015, when the matter came to Council. Armstrong (PREQUEL 4/21/2015) and Mike Williams, Memphis Police Association (MPA) President are quoted in the Memphis Flyer as: “… Both Director Toney Armstrong and Memphis Police Association President Mike Williams took issue with the idea giving the board subpoena power, claiming that it could impact the officers’ Fifth Amendment rights …”. Toney Armstrong later lied (PREQUEL 8/2/2016) saying “My support for CLERB has not changed.” Armstrong is quoted by Kemp Conrad as the source of an email saying that homicides will increase 20% if the ordinance is passed. (PREQUEL 8/4/2015). Homicides did not increase 20% after CLERB.
MPA also said (PREQUEL 7/7/2015) that there were already enough controls in place at MPD.
Current Director Mike Rallings, who has stonewalled all recommendations of CLERB (ARCHIVE 5/10/2018) as per this letter from CLERB to Mayor Strickland.
The 2015 City Council group opposed to the revitalization of CLERB included:
Kemp Conrad berated Paul Garner from the Council dais. Photo: Gary Moore
Bill Boyd, who proposed an amendment to reduce the CLERB budget by half (PREQUEL 6/16/2015) and voted against the CLERB budget.
Kemp Conrad also voted against the CLERB budget (PREQUEL 6/16/2015). He egged Berlin Boyd to ask for a November rather than an early resumption of the CLERB ordinance (PREQUEL 8/4/2015). He also made vicious personal attacks on Paul Garner and the pro-CLERB lobby from the council dais. (PREQUEL 8/4/2015). He tried fear mongering, quoting an email from MPD Director Toney Armstrong saying that homicides will increase 20% if the ordinance is passed. (PREQUEL 8/4/2015). Conrad also voted against the final CLERB ordinance (PREQUEL 11/3/2015)
Jim Strickland, on the basis of an Allan Wade opinion, produced a last minute amendment on the third reading of the CLERB ordinance, removing CLERB’s subpoena powers. (PREQUEL 7/7/2015). Last minute amendments are often used to derail motions in Council.
Berlin Boyd (PREQUEL 8/4/2015) asked for a four month delay in voting for the CLERB ordinance
Reid Hedgepeth also voted both to delay CLERB (PREQUEL 8/4/2015) and (PREQUEL 11/3/2015).
Also voting to delay CLERB (PREQUEL 8/4/2015): Bill Morrison and Joe Brown.
Jim Strickland, City Council member in 2015, now Mayor Photo: Gary Moore
The 2016 City Council group who altered CLERB’s subpoena powers include the group we know as the Caissa Seven: Kemp Conrad, Reid Hedgepeth, Berlin Boyd, Bill Morrison and newcomers Worth Morgan, Philip Spinosa and Frank Colvett. This group has voted as a bloc on all police issues except for Berlin Boyd’s marijuana ordinance in August 2016. Joe Brown, who had received $5,000 from the MPA (Memphis Police Association) PAC and who had passed on $500 of this to Mike Williams 2015 Mayoral campaign was very pro-police and anti-CLERB.
We had seen how Jim Strickland had introduced the idea that CLERB could not have subpoena power and tried to have this power removed on 7/7/2015. This cause was taken up in 2016 by new Council member Worth Morgan. Morgan had been Chair of the Council’s Public Safety and Homeland Security sub-committee since January, 2016, and was ex-officio the CLERB city liaison member.
Worth Morgan was the official Council liaison with CLERB but he failed to attend all but two of 20 CLERB meetings.
(PREQUEL 7/5/2016 and 8/9/2016) Worth Morgan introduced a measure to remove CLERB’s limited subpoena powers. A furious debate ensued, with CLERB supporters again in the chamber. CLERB, through its Council liaison, would request Council to issue the subpoena, and the case would be heard as a Council meeting. This version of subpoena power was passed, with only Kemp Conrad voting against the compromise.
Worth Morgan’s attendance at CLERB meetings is recorded in ARCHIVE. He attended only the April and June 2016 meetings, and missed all 17 meetings subsequent to June 2016. This had the effect of making the cumbersome subpoena process even more so, due to the City Liaison’s role in the procedure. Morgan’s chronic absence from CLERB severed the only link to City Council.
What to do about CLERB?
Bruce Kramer, longtime civil rights attorney and stellar CLERB member until dropped by Mayor Strickland in August 2017.
The obvious move, to try and get City Council, to change the CLERB ordinance is a non-starter with the current City Council incumbents. Although Philip Spinosa has left Council, his hand-picked replacement, J Ford Canale, is likely to vote with the Caissas. Joe Brown is very anti-CLERB, so the votes are just not there. Maybe after 2019, especially if CLERB can be made an election issue.
CLERB could consider asking Council for a subpoena at the next available opportunity. It would be a good opportunity to test the process. The outcome may inform the voters.
Allan Wade was the originator of the “opinion” that the City has no right to delegate subpoena powers. It first surfaced on the record as a comment by Jim Strickland (PREQUEL 7/7/2015). Wade is known for providing dubious legal opinions as required by Council.
Attorney Bruce Kramer (ARCHIVE 7/14/2016) pointed out that Knoxville has a CLERB with direct subpoena powers. There is no mention of delegation of subpoena powers in the City Charter or statutes. This would suggest that the issue could be litigated.
CLERB binding recommendations.
During the 2016 discussion of CLERB at City Council, (PREQUEL 7/7/2015), in an assumption that goodwill would exist with all parties, CLERB recommendations were made non binding on MPD. As there has been no goodwill on the part of Director Rallings this might be revisited. On the face of it the votes are not there on Council to improve CLERB, but Rallings has so violated the intent of the 2015 CLERB discussion that the Council vote lock might be broken.
CLERB administration
CLERB administrator Virginia Wilson
There are issues with CLERB administration. The failure of CLERB to get its minutes and meeting documents properly indexed on the City Online Meetings portal is inexplicable. The video from the regular City Hall meeting rooms seems to be automatically updated but the CLERB administrators would have to follow the same process to catalog meeting minutes and other documents that other City scribes use. If the City site admins are somehow blocking this process, that issue would need to be escalated.
The issue of personal information in complainant case notes is often cited. The Tennessee Open Records law is very clear that documents which contain certain personal information, such as health details, and some personally identifying information, must be redacted before publication.
The CLERB website is finally live. Normal practice for a website with periodic document downloads is to provide the administrator with a software tool and security access to upload new documents.
At the time of writing, there have been some improvements to the CLERB tab on the City meetings page and a new page has appeared on the CLERB site with eight documents. (ARCHIVE). These are new and welcome. But way not enough.
CLERB cannot meet its transparency objective until the clerical task of uploading all its documents, and keeping them current, is complete. We created our archive to serve as a source of documents and also to show CLERB how it is done. It is not persuasive to blame the City for these omissions. As yesterday’s new page as shown, CLERB do have control over their site and could have added documents anytime. Or paid $40 for a blog page and done it there. No excuses for lazy publication.
CLERB is authorized for one additional employee. CLERB could avail of an intern from the city. The Tennessee Law Society has offered to put CLERB on its books as a recipient of pro-bono legal help, but CLERB refused this offer. Lack of manpower is not an excuse.
CLERB Demands
MPD Director Mike Rallings
In CLERB’s letter to the Mayor of 5/10/2018, the following solutions were offered.
“1) Director Rallings to be reasonable and at least meet us in the middle on our decisions (compromise),
2) A new police director who will work with us (CLERB)
3) A new ordinance that gives CLERB binding decision-making power, or
4) an amendment to the current ordinance, which gives appellate power to the mayor over the police director’s decisions”.
Make Recommendations for MPD policy change.
Attorney John Marek, long-time CLERB member.
In (ARCHIVE 11/17/2016) John Marek pointed out the CLERB cannot change MPD P&P but can make recommendations for policy changes.
What specific recommendations to make? That’s a wonky subject. MPD’s P&P manual is voluminous. It would be a lifetime task to make it right. A few changes are suggested by the CLERB work product.
Premises Advisory / Hazard Location Policy
Reginald Johnson’s case (ARCHIVE 11/11/2016 and 3/9/2017) suggests a P&P change. After trying to hold MPD to account for investigating the death in 2014 of his son Samuel, and after his CLERB case was upheld, Mr Johnson’s house was flagged by MPD as a “hazard location” via a data construct called a “premises advisory”. After a large turnout of MPD cruisers to his house for a routine call, Mr Johnson, considering his beat-down and macing by police, was understandably intimidated. Mid South Peace and Justice took up his case and, in May 2018, Mr Johnson had a meeting with Director Rallings and other officers, in which he was told the premises advisory would be removed. The term “Hazard Location” or “Hazard List” was used by all commentators. The term “Premises Advisory” was first introduced by MPD brass during the May meeting with Mr. Johnson, who reported verbally on the meeting. MPD refused to create any record of this meeting.
Reginald Johnson is the poster child for police brutality and retaliation thanks to his CLERB case.
MPD needs a policy which governs the use of premises advisory and/or hazard location designations. This should include criteria for creating this datum, notification of the subject, a review procedure, and a procedure for challenging use of this procedure. This P&P recommendation could be attached by CLERB to Mr. Johnson’s case as an addendum.
DR501: Attendance at Court.
This is a much-abused existing policy. It is in the P&P Manual, chapter 1 section 3, DR 501. (PDF). In his testimony to CLERB, (ARCHIVE 11/17/2016) Reginald Johnson mentioned that his case was dismissed when the arresting officer did not show up in court.
Maureen’s Spain’s case was rejected by CLERB
DR501: “All commissioned members of this Department are considered officers of the court and shall testify or give evidence before any Grand Jury or court of law when properly called upon to do so and when there is no properly asserted constitutional privilege, or when immunity from prosecution has been granted…”.
Why this is significant, is that an arresting officer is required to appear for the preliminary hearing, where she is required to prove probable cause for the arrest. Officers have been observed to not turn up for the preliminary hearing in order to make a case go away. This might be because a false arrest was perpetrated, or as a reprisal or punishment, where the arresting officer never planned to attend the preliminary, or because the arrest is problematic or sometimes as a courtesy to a fellow officer who is on trial. We posted about this issue, with several examples.
While not attending is a breach of regulations, the worst that happens according to anonymous police sources, is a half-day suspension, and a slap on the wrist is more common.
Why preliminary appearance is important.
Being arrested and having to go through the process of detainment, obtaining bail and legal representation, and take time off work for court appearances is expensive and time consuming for a defendant. Currently the arresting officer is incentivized to allow the case to proceed through the prosecutor’s process, in the hope that the defendant will take a proffer. This can leave the defendant liable for court costs and with a conviction on their record.
The jeopardy and cost issues for the defendant are much greater than any punishment the officer will attract for not turning up. It follows that, if a cop is planning to ditch the case at the preliminary hearing, that the prosecution process should end as quickly as possible, to minimize the harm to the defendant.
We have spoken to police who maintain that it is a policeman’s right to arrest anyone and put her in the jail for 14 hours or so, and to evade consequences by not appearing for the preliminary hearing, a sort of job perk.
Suggested changes to DR 501.
When the missed court appearance is a preliminary hearing, a wrongful arrest should be assumed and IAD should be required to open a false arrest case.
Mandatory and increasing punishments for not appearing at a preliminary hearing should start at a week’s suspension for first offence, and increase for every offense thereafter.
A third offense should be punished with mandatory dismissal from the force.
The existing DR501 has provision for genuine health-related and other excuses for non attendance.
Police should be encouraged to reveal to the prosecutor and defense that he will not attend the preliminary hearing as early as possible in the case, and this should result in immediate dismissal of the case. There should be a reduced punishment for the officer when this happens.
Any pre-trial plea agreement should go to the preliminary hearing for ratification by a judge, so the plea and the case can be thrown out if the officer does not appear, or if he fails to prove probable cause for the arrest. An IAD case should be automatically opened whenever probable cause is not established for the arrest.
Internal Affairs Case Acceptance Policy
MPD’s Internal Affairs sometimes rejects cases. Normal practice for police internal affairs bureaus is that a case should be started for each and every complaint by the public. Federal Department of Justice standards (PDF) states, on page 12 “The widest possible net should be thrown open at intake to receive all complaints from all possible sources of complaint.”
MPD’s IAD does not open a case for every complaint. Instead, they sometimes create a “miscellaneous note” for a complaint. This directly affects CLERB because a rejected IAD complaint can’t be taken up by CLERB.
I personally experienced this, when I called IAD in November of 2016. I had been arrested, and the arresting officer failed to turn up for the preliminary hearing. When I approached CLERB to take up my filming-the-police case, they could not because IAD had rejected the case. I escalated the IAD complaint to the lieutenant in charge, who adamantly refused to open a case. In the end, as Paul Garner’s CLERB case covered similar ground, I gave up trying to get IAD to take the case.
IAD can, and does, create a catch-22 situation by this policy, where cases can be kept from CLERB.
CLERB should make a recommendation that IAD’s policy be changed to be in line with normal police practice and DOJ recommendations. A case must be opened for each and every complaint.
Additional actions by CLERB.
CLERB Photo: The Commercial Appeal
CLERB is likely to encounter additional opportunities to consider P&P changes in the course of their work.
A P&P change that is rejected by MPD can still be taken to Council as an ordinance, or perhaps the Police and Homeland Security sub-committee can take direct action with the police.
The current Council is unlikely to pass a new amendment to the CLERB ordinance to add subpoena powers or to allow mandatory CLERB recommendations.
But the current Council might entertain reasonable small changes to the P&P.
New City Council 2019
The political options for a new City Council regarding CLERB may become greater. There are two additional measures which should be done, given the political will:
Amend the CLERB ordinance again to give CLERB direct subpoena power, and be ready to defend this measure in the courts.
Amend the CLERB ordinance to give CLERB authority to make binding recommendations to the Police Director, including the ability to amend the MPD policy and procedures manual.
Increase the CLERB budget and authorized staff positions.
Next from memphistruth.org is the final piece of the CLERB series. It delves into the political process by which white control over policing is maintained, and its relationship to the economics of power in the city.
Memphis: We have recently seen news reports about CLERB. At the May 10th CLERB meeting, CLERB members vented their frustration because “…the Memphis Police want a “dog and pony show” without any accountability, said the Rev. Ralph White…”. “There’s no respect for the board.”
CLERB Photo: The Commercial Appeal
Mike Rallings, MPD Director, had replied to CLERB’s original four letters about sustained cases. CLERB then composed this letter to Mayor Strickland. The frustration at MPD Director Mike Rallings’ stonewalling of every CLERB suggestion is palpable. “…The members of CLERB volunteer our time, and, currently, it is being wasted…”.
Unfortunately, the CLERB website, whose creation was delayed until eighteen months into CLERB’s revival, does not host a single CLERB document, as is required by the CLERB ordinance. There are no minutes, copies of official letters, not a single word about CLERB’s cases. CLERB’s role, above all else, is to bring transparency into police abuses, and their failure to post their documents and videos marks a tragic failure in their mission.
We addressed the CLERB archival deficit in our first piece on CLERB. Hopefully they’ll rectify that issue soon. If not, we’ll continue to update our archive until they do.
This second installment into our CLERB investigation is a prequel of sorts. We think it is essential, in any discussion of fixing the problems in CLERB, to understand how CLERB got to its current state.
Paul Garner, whose case led to CLERB’s reactivation, is in many ways the hero behind CLERB as we know it. Photo: Who Will Watch the Watchers
To provide some depth into the CLERB discussion, we have delved into media reports, material from the redoubtable Gary Moore of Who Will Watch the Watchers, Memphis United, a division of the Mid-South Peace and Justice Center , which played a leading role in the reactivation of CLERB in 2016, and https://www.politicalpolice.org/ which maintains a timeline of MPD history. We’ve gathered as much as we can find, including some documents retrieved via Open Records requests, and present it here to help inform the CLERB discussion.
The creation of CLERB, 1994
CLERB was created by City ordinance in 1994, in response to a spate of police shootings of civilians, as “an independent, non-police Mayoral Agency with … the power to receive, investigate, hear cases, make findings and recommend action on complaints.” CLERB’s shortcomings was noted at the time: “…CLERB can only hear a case after Memphis Police Department’s (MPD) Internal Affairs (IA) has completed its investigation … CLERB has no subpoena powers … MPD officers’ presence at a CLEB hearing is … voluntary… the extent of CLERB’s disciplinary power is a non-binding recommendation to MPD”.
According to this Commercial Appeal article from 2015, “…The program went inactive in 2011 because it didn’t have the support of the administration and no enforcement power, said CLERB chairman and Rev. Ralph White…”. The administration referred to is Mayor Wharton’s.
Paul Garner enters the picture.
In May of 2013, Memphis City Council unanimously passed a resolution, tasking Memphis United with holding nine public forums, one in each council district, to hear from constituents as to what they envision for the role and function of CLERB in Memphis. Subsequently, Memphis United consolidated feedback with best practices identified by the National Agency for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement (NACOLE.org) and prepared recommendations for the Council in a report entitled, “Increasing the Effectiveness of the Civilian Law Review Board.” (PDF).
On 10/21/2013, Paul Garner, an organizer for H.O.P.E. (Homeless Organizing for Power & Equality), was arrested by MPD allegedly for disorderly conduct and obstructing a highway or passageway. He was filming police who were harassing occupants of Manna House, on Jefferson St., a resource for the homeless and poor. “I understand you’re videotaping, and it’s on video, so I’m going to take you for jail for obstructing highway passages,” said one of the officers in the video.
CLERB rally in 2015. Photo: Gary Moore
Photographing police is protected by the first amendment. It is perhaps no surprise that MPD Director Toney Armstrong weeks later issued this policy, on 12/7/2013 (PDF), explicitly invoking that first amendment right. The policy is in Chapter 2 section 14 of the MPD Policy and Procedures Manual, under Public Recordings (PDF pages 77 et seq).
Gary Moore’s documentary, Who will Watch the Watchers, documents this story, following Garner’s Kafkaesque journey through the criminal justice system and the campaign of Mid South Peace and Justice offshoot, Memphis United, in this narrative.
Memphis United
Paul Garner’s case was dismissed. He subsequently took his case to the IAB and was told, on 4/10/2014 that his case was “not sustained” by Internal Affairs. Memphis United took the case to City Council on April 15th 2014, after being unable to take his case to the moribund CLERB.
The group took up the public review of CLERB, organizing and financing public meetings in all nine City Council districts, getting citizen input and following industry reporting standards. The series of public meetings started on June 24th 2014 and the report was completed in March of 2015. Memphis United reportedly paid $100,000 for this public input process.
There followed a series of City Council actions or inactions culminating in an August 2016 ordinance which reinstated CLERB but failed to rectify many of the problems that the Memphis United study had recommended.
City Council Actions on CLERB
The issue reappears April 2015
The CLERB ordinance first came before Council on 4/21/2015. “… Both Director Toney Armstrong and Memphis Police Association President Mike Williams took issue with the idea giving the board subpoena power, claiming that it could impact the officers’ Fifth Amendment rights …”. It was passed unanimously on first reading in its original form (PDF) as proposed by Memphis United. (minutes).
The ordinance was approved on second reading on 5/5/2015. (minutes).
On 5/19/2015 the ordinance came up for the third reading and was held over until June 2nd. (minutes).
On 6/2/2015, on third reading, the measure was held over until June 16th (minutes).
CLERB Budget Approved, June 2015
On June 16th, a budget motion to fund CLERB with an amount of $200,000 was proposed. Bill Boyd proposed an amendment to reduce it to $100,000, which was voted down. The motion to fund CLERB was passed, with opposing votes from Kemp Conrad and Bill Boyd. The CLERB ordinance was not discussed (minutes).
Paul Garner speaks at City Hall. Photo: Gary Moore
The CLERB ordinance was next discussed at a Council meeting on July 7th 2015. An amended version of the ordinance was presented. Council member “…Jim Strickland said the city’s legal department weighed in on the ordinance and said the City Council couldn’t give subpoena powers…” The legal theory propounded by Allan Wade was that Council had subpoena powers but could not delegate them to CLERB. References to county involvement, IAB and city employee compulsory attendance were also modified. Memphis Police Association (MPA) said that there were already enough controls in place, maintaining their steadfast opposition to CLERB reactivation. (minutes). The item was held over until July 21st. Dozens of citizens spoke to the motion.
The ordinance was not on the agenda for 7/21/2015 (minutes).
August 2015: CLERB issue comes to a head
On 8/4/2015, a pivotal Council meeting had some strange exchanges. The CA relates that, on August 1st, an MPD officer, Sean Bolton had been killed. MPD Director Toney Armstrong asked for a delay in the final approval of the CLERB ordinance. Armstrong lied on the record, saying “My support for CLERB has not changed.”, directly contradicting his opposition on the record from 4/21/2015.
“We lost this officer and we should give the family respect. Let them grieve,” said Berlin Boyd, who proposed the delay. “Voting for the delay were council members Berlin Boyd, Bill Boyd, Joe Brown, Kemp Conrad, Edmund Ford, Reid Hedgepeth and Bill Morrison. Voting no were members Harold Collins, Alan Crone, Janis Fullilove, Wanda Halbert, Myron Lowery and Jim Strickland.”
Kemp Conrat berates Paul Garner from the Council daison 8/4/2016. Photo: Gary Moore
“But even before there was a call to delay, Conrad made an argument against CLERB, calling the supporters people who don’t like the police and have an anti-police agenda.”, per the Commercial Appeal. This severely understates what actually happened. “Who will Watch the Watchers” documentary includes footage of Kemp Conrad berating Paul Garner from the Council dais, saying that Garner hated the police.
The four-month delay punted the vote after the November 2015 Council elections. Strangely, neither the Council minutes nor the Executive Session minutes or Police Committee agenda contains any mention of this “debate”. This is surely a falsification of official documents, a felony at both State and Federal levels. The official Council video tells the whole story.
After six members of the public, including Bradley Watkins of Mid South Peace and Justice Center, spoke, supportive of the compromise draft which had emerged during discussion.
Wanda Halbert, then defended the proposal, emphasizing the efforts of MPD, MPA, the Mayor, Memphis United and other activists and CLERB itself to come up with the amended ordinance.
At this point, Kemp Conrad said that transparency was not the objective. He said the process was led by “people who don’t like the police”, people with an anti-police agenda, championed by Mr (Paul) Garner. It is bad policy to put a “self-described troublemaker” in charge of drafting this ordinance. The effect of caving in to activists is the reason for the 20% rise in homicides. Leadership should not be swayed but should support the police. He urged a vote against the measure to send a message to the police that they would stand by them. The CLERB measure has no balance, because policing problems are due to a few bad apples, not a systemic problem. Paul Garner has clearly expressed disdain for MPD. This would be a vote against public safety.
Wanda Halbert, clearly shocked at Kemp Conrad’s outburst, stood up for Paul Garner and praised the hard work of Memphis United. She criticized Conrad for ‘sandbagging’ the process at the third reading, and she listed some of the improvements to CLERB embodied in the draft.
Janis Fullilove asks a question of Wanda Halberd, who assures her that police wrongly accused by CLERB will have redress under State ethics law.
Kemp Conrad quotes an email from MPD Director Toney Armstrong saying that homicides will increase 20% if the ordinance is passed. He again lambastes Paul Garner, calling him a “lawbreaker at heart”.
Wanda Halbert again defends Memphis United.
Alan Crone defends Wanda Halbert and the collaborative process by which the current draft was negotiated. He points out that an officer exonerated by CLERB will be in a stronger position than if she is exonerated by MPD, where a cover-up might be alleged. He points out that they had already funded CLERB and that the changes were mainly the tightening up of timelines and the clarification of various procedures. He praised the job Wanda Halbert had done in shepherding the discussions and again enumerated the ownership groups involved.
William Boyd then asked for details of the drafting meeting.
Berlin Boyd intervenes at behest of MPD Director
Berlin Boyd
Berlin Boyd then invited Police Director Toney Armstrong to the podium, after a phone call on the dais. Boyd thanks Armstrong for his work and mentions Officer Sean Bolton who had been killed on duty the previous Saturday, August 1st. In a leading manner, he asks Armstrong how he felt about that. He, in a rehearsed manner, asks for a delay in the vote until after the funeral, which was scheduled for the following Thursday, August 6th.
Boyd then asks for a delay until August, after the funeral. Kemp Conrad, speaking out of turn, yells “First meeting in November, after the funeral”. Berlin Boyd immediately takes up the “First Meeting in November” refrain.
Wanda Halbert asked : When is the funeral service, Thursday? What does Thursday
MPD Director Toney Armstrng. Photo: Bizjournals.
have to do with November? She suggests a delay until after the funeral. She says she is disturbed, and she called out that something else was going on. She proposed an amendment to Boyd’s motion to finalize in two weeks. Another motion to delay for two weeks was proposed, both were voted down and another to delay until September, voted down. Boyd’s motion to delay until November 3rd was voted and approved, with Berlin Boyd, Bill Boyd, Kemp Conrad, Bill Morrison, Joe Brown, and Reid Hedgepeth voting for.
The vote was finally taken on 11/3/2015. Sixteen citizens spoke on the motion, which passed without the drama of August’s meeting. “..Council members Kemp Conrad and Reid Hedgepeth were the only two members to vote against the ordinance …“, according to the Flyer, although the official minutes omit the Nay votes from the record. In the discussion Harold Collins talked about the subpoena issue and other potential issues. Wanda Halbert summarized the process. Video clearly shows the Conrad and Hedgepeth Nay votes.
By this time, the CLERB backlog totaled 186 cases.
2016: Worth Morgan tries to remove CLERB subpoena powers, awkward compromise is agreed
The next time CLERB came up in Council was 7/5/2016. The major change was to remove CLERB’s untested subpoena power and tidy up some issues around CLERB’s open meetings law compliance. Worth Morgan had proposed a mechanism where the Council executes the subpoena on CLERB’s behalf. After much discussion, the motion was held until August 9th. Minutes.
Worth Morgan tried to remove CLERB subpoena powers in 2017.
On 8/9/2016, the day Council approved Mike Rallings appointment as Police Director, the council chamber was again full of CLERB supporters. The legacy CLERB ordinance had given subpoena powers to the Board, which had never been tested. Council Attorney, Allan Wade, who has always been happy to opine the way Council wanted, had written an opinion that Council was not authorized to delegate its subpoena power. Worth Morgan had proposed this amendment to make the CLERB ordinance compliant with Wade’s opinion.
From the Memphis Flyer, “…The original CLERB ordinance passed last year gave the board indirect subpoena power, but Morgan — also the CLERB council liaison — had recently introduced new language to remove that power, saying such power would violate the city charter. But Morgan has apparently worked out a compromise that retains the board’s subpoena power but changes the meeting at which those subpoenaed would be compelled to attend.”
The new language up for vote today reads: “In order to carry out its functions, the board is authorized to request through its Council liaison, a subpoena to effectuate an investigation or compel attendance by an officer or witness for a hearing before the Memphis City Council. Upon investigation and fact finding, the Council liaison shall present a resolution to the full City Council to obtain the requested subpoena. Should the Council liaison fail to support the request of the board for the subpoena within the next two council meetings following the date of the request, the board Chairperson may make a recommendation to the City Council Chair. In the event the Council fails to issue the requested subpoena, the board reserves the right to file a complaint with the local and state ethics commissions, Tennessee Human Rights Commissions, or the Department of Justice to investigate the case before the CLERB board.” …”.
It’s worth pointing out that Worth Morgan, the originator of the original wording to strip CLERB’s indirect subpoena power completely, was (until January 2018) the chair of the Council Police and Homeland Security sub-committee and the Council’s representative on CLERB. As Council liaison on CLERB, he would have had a pivotal role in enforcing a subpoena, but Morgan has never attended a CLERB meeting since this amendment. Morgan has attended only two CLERB meetings, both before the August 2016 amendment. Kemp Conrad was the only Nay vote, Patrice Robinson did not vote, Berlin Boyd and Bill Morrison were absent. Minutes. Official Video.
CLERB and Subpoena Power.
At the CLERB meeting of July 14th, 2016 veteran Civil Rights attorney and CLERB member discussed Konxville CLERB’s direct subpoena power, suggesting that direct CLERB subpoena power does not contravene State law, and it was also pointed out that there is no mention of subpoena power at all in the City charter, suggesting no prohibition. Minutes(PDF).
Summary of CLERB reactivation
The general picture is that CLERB was allowed to go inactive, citizen activists had, over a three year period, fought City Council and ended up with a very flawed ordinance. But CLERB had been saved.
The matter of CLERB’s documents.
Many fingers can be pointed at City Council, notably Kemp Conrad’s, Berlin Boyd’s Joe Brown’s and Worth Morgan’s roles in obstructing the initial passage of the ordinance, or its subsequent weakening in August 2016. These, and Worth Morgan’s failure to attend a CLERB meetings, created problems for CLERB’s task of bring transparency to MPD’s operations.
But many of CLERB’s problems are of their own making. They have control over their own paperwork and official website, but, as of the date of writing (5/29/2018) they have not published a single minute, video,case history or official letter on their website, as required by the ordinance. All meetings were captured on video and had a court reporter present. Their work of uncovering the facts of police misconduct has not been helped by the fact that the only way the public can hear about these cases is by attending CLERB in person, submitting an open records request, reading a media account or consulting our own home-made CLERB archive.
The main avenue for transparency has been Gary Moore of Who will Watch the Watchers, who shot video at many of the CLERB meetings. The movie itself chronicles the struggle of Memphis United and allies to get CLERB reinstated and ties it to other activism in Memphis.
Our next CLERB piece will be a summary of measures CLERB and others have suggested to fix CLERB’s problems.
CLERB’s mission is to bring transparency to MPD (Memphis Police Department) operations. Transparency requires that CLERB minutes, case documents (possibly redacted), communications with MPD and other City entities, meeting video and other public documents should be posted on CLERB’s website and some of them also on the City website .
This is the hilarious story of how a rag tag group of activists, at Coalition of Concerned Citizens in Memphis, beat intelligence analysts at MPD, TBI, THP and the Fusion Centers at what should be their own game. They did it not once but several times. We have new information on the events of April 3rd 2018.
Members of an MPD Organized Crime Unit snatch squad arrest Yuleiny Escobar on April 3rd 2018. Photo: Gary Moore
Memphis has the highest energy burden of US cities. MLGW and TVA propose a series of rate increases. A new City program to invest heavily in the energy efficiency of our homes can address the energy burden, reinvest in our communities and reduce poverty. Continue reading “Memphis Energy Burden”→
Probably one of the most significant finding to date is the identification of the Geofeedia replacement. The ACLU had been after this product as the social media spy tool of choice until the social media powerhouses cut off its data feed in October 2016. The new replacement is NC4, which was revealed in the new a-list documents, we think for the first time. All we can find is this PRnewswire piece which was probably paid for by NC4.com as part of its PR aimed at local LE departments.
Frustration at being totally confounded by this poorly financed, rag-tag group of activists may have led to Keedran Frankin‘s July 6th arrest, and the planting of evidence in his car. This arrest was allegedly in a traffic stop done by OCU, which is not exactly their beat.
In other news: Office of Homeland Security identified.
—concluded—
5/12/2016: Downtown Memphis Commission (DMC) approves 
1/1/2016 Berlin Boyd became the City Council representative on the EDGE board for calendar 2016. 
Boyd’s dealings at EDGE has given him a lot of access to their highest policy-making levels. We received 
Berlin Boyd. You have been in a position to influence the granting of valuable benefits to your partners in 1544 Madison. Can you show us a cashed check for the amount of your investment in 1544 Madison? Edge valued the investment at 
Dog whistle politics is a real thing. Its main function is to use traditional racist memes to make white voters afraid. The practitioners have also perverted community policing by using programs such as COP and neighborhood watches to recruit Black pastors and community activists to also gain police support in the Black community. Our recent post on the 
The CLERB 
Memphis Truth Commission 
